Alienware 17 R4 crashing on sleep/hibernate

Hi everyone,

Since Nov 2020 I have been having an ongoing problem with my laptop. Occasionally, when it moves to sleep mode and turning off the screen the fans will start running on high, and it will blank the screen. When I start moving the mouse to get it to wake back up, it won't, and I have to do a hard reboot. Even more rarely, it will just flat out freeze; however, I do think they are actually the same problem. It also just does the straight up freezing infrequently enough that if they were two different problems, and I was able to just fix the sleep mode problem and the freezing continued, I'd be ok with it.

Originally, I assumed it was a W10 update that was causing the problem, but several patches have happened since then and it hasn't corrected itself since then.

Everything software/BIOS-wise is up to date. I have also specifically reinstalled the GPU drivers with a clean install, to see if that helps.

I have done some research on the Internets and some of the suggestions have been along the lines of disabling certain W10 features, such as "fast startup." I haven't been able to find those features. There are supposedly ways to make those features visible then disable them, but I haven't been able to get them to show up.

I have also looked at the Windows system error log. I have done some research on what I have found there, but didn't find it enlightening. However, I have to admit, I don't really know what I am looking at with that.

Based on Internets research, my best guess is that there is something in how my CPU is dealing with sleep mode that is causing the crash.

My second guess is that it might have something to do with my GPU. I have the Alienware Graphics Accelerator with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition. I have also considered that it might somehow be interfering with the GPU that is in the laptop, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile. One thing I have not done is unplugged the graphics accelerator and just run on the laptop card to see if I could get the same problem to occur, but I don't know if it is worth the trouble.

Ultimately, it is manageable, but it is just annoying. I'd like to fix it if can. Any suggestions?

 

Wrong sub forum, ill report this so it can be moved to the proper location.

 

Crap! I had looked around and I thought this is where it should be.
Thanx for helping me out.

 

Well, try unplugging the Graphics Amplifier and see what happens when you put the laptop to sleep. If that doesn't work, try re-setting the BIOS to the default values, and if that doesn't work, the problem would most likely would have something to do with the CPU's C-states. C-states are different states that the CPU can be in, the lower the C-state, the less the CPU is doing iirc. Sleep mode is triggered by a low C-state, and that may be your problem. I'm not the most knowledgeable on this topic, but a few other guys might be able to help out

 

I'll be trying that next week. I take the laptop and not the amplifier on vacation. It will be interesting leaving it on for a week and seeing if it hangs.

I've never messed with the BIOS other than updating them. I would assume they are set to default.

I saw some stuff about C-states and that started getting into the edges of my knowledge -> one of the reasons I came here. I don't like changing stuff like that without consulting.

Thanx for the suggestions.

 

A bit of a thread necro, sorry.

So, I believe I figured out what the issue was.

To round out the story: In Nov 2021, a year after this issue first started, I started having a new problem. I very rarely use my laptop battery, and usually what happens is that every few weeks or so, the battery would start charging in the high 90's and finish within a few minutes. Well, it started going through this cycle of not charging correctly. It would get stuck in a loop where it wouldn't charge any more, then switch to battery power, then start charging again and repeat. I had seen it before, but it usually just needed a reboot or some "time off" charging. However, this was more intense and started becoming a regular issue. I started doing some stuff to check on what was going on. Looking in the start up menu I noticed it would switch back and forth with recognizing my ac adaptor when it did this charging cycle. I also disconnected the battery, discharged the laptop by pressing the power, and reconnecting. Still no success. I also discharged the battery all the way and recharged it. The battery seemed (possibly) to recalibrate itself (at least that was the goal), but things got worse. The gfx amplifier was on, but it was using the laptop card. I also noticed that it was connecting to my Internets via wifi, even though I had a ethernet cable running to the router, implying my ethernet card wasn't working. In addition, it seemed that if I strained graphics by running some of my more graphics intensive games, e.g. Gloomhaven, it would start this battery cycle thing. This all, at least to me, pointed to some sort of power issue. So I busted out my old volt-o-meter and checked the DC output voltage of my AC adapter, and sure enough, it was low.

Bought a new one, and all problems have ceased. The only thing is that the original issue with the sleep/hibernate problem may still be there. Since it was intermittent, it hasn't been long enough to convince me it is gone, yet. However, I haven't seen anything that indicates it is still there. I will update if I see it again, but I'll give it a couple of weeks.

I offer all this just for a post that people can search to get more info if their AW starts failing. I thought about it and my previous AW had the same issue develop and I had to get a new adapter for it as well. IIRC, it also was at about the 4 year mark. Easy to remember because that is when the longest warranties end.

I guess the final thing I have is a question: Should I go ahead and get another AC adapter now, or is it pretty likely that the type of adapter that I have will be still floating around 4 years from now? My laptop was top-of-the-line when I bought it and, with the AGA, I intended for it to live as long a life as possible. It is ~5 years old now.

I am aware that the AGA has been discontinued, and it appears there are ways to accomplish the same things without the proprietary port. However, I expect that I can get use out of it for a bit. Currently, I have an NVIDIA 1080 FE in there, and Gloomhaven's recommended specs match my on-board GPU. So I figure that I can eventually bump up to the highest supported GPU for the AGA in a little while (meaning when the prices finally come down, I bought my 1080 for $700 and it is still going for half that price on ebay, but mining is what it is) and that will carry me for some time, as I don't really play games that are particularly GPU heavy. My next highest GPU heavy game is Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and my on-board card is above the rec specs.

Thanx for reading and let me know what you all think!

 

Haha! Not really, still crashes sometimes on hibernate. I'll take it though if all the other stuff remains fixed.